Re: Difference between SCP and SFTP ?

From: Nico Kadel-Garcia (nkadel_at_comcast.net)
Date: 02/07/05 

Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 20:04:32 -0500

"Matthew Poole" <spam@stops.here> wrote in message
news:cu5rj9$saj$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> In article <5573513d.0502061059.30521ff0@posting.google.com>,
> akim_ziadi@hotmail.com (mika) wrote:
> *SNIP*
>>But It's seems that SCP need a user Shell, Is it true ?
> Yes. scp uses the SSH system for login, and that requires a valid
> shell. I believe you will find that sftp does too.
>
> *SNIP*
>>Ps: What's the difference between scp and SFTP.
>>
> scp is a replacement for rcp, and is used to do batch file transfers in
> a non-interactive way. This means that the user or application needs to
> know the name and location of the file/s they wish to transfer before
> they commence.
> sftp is just FTP over SSH. You can browse the directory structure and
> get file listings before getting or sending files.

It's really not FTP. It's interface is similar to FTP, but it does not
recognize regexp commands or permit recursive directory listings, so basic
FTP functionality is missing, and as near as I can tell it will not report
symblinks correctly so that the link can be copied instead of the contents
of the link. For most folks, SFTP is equivalent to SCP with a slightly
different interface.

If you need to restrict users inside a more effective cage and gain better
control over authorized access, you might strongly consider WebDAV over
HTTPS, which allows plain old web browser downloading, and allows uploading
with good interfaces built into Windows, Linux, and has nice graphical Java
interfaces available for other OS's. I find it much easier to manage than
SSH cages for users who should not have local shells.

Relevant Pages

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